A CU Boulder student pushes to examine the effects of trayless dining in campus cafeterias

“It’s supposed to save water and save energy, and people also take less food when they don’t have a tray, because they can’t stack it up as much. So you don’t have as much food waste,” says Courtlyn Carpenter, a sophomore who researched trayless dining during her freshman year at the University of Colorado Boulder.

That’s how the Boulderbased company Agua Inc describes its rich collection of macrophytes, a class of plants that dominate wetlands, streams and shallow lake ecosystems in the wild. Macrophytes are also the key to Agua’s vision: helping to make clean, safe water attainable in the poorest and least developed corners of the globe.

The UN climate talks in Lima have ended with the setting of deadlines for the world to come up with plans to curb emissions and adapt to climate change.

By Nov. 1 the secretariat of the United Nations Climate Change Convention is supposed to have assessed whether the commitment of these 196 nations is enough to stop the world overheating — and, if it is not, to point out by how far they will miss the target.

Though 3-D printing may lead in new manufacturing processes, it lags in sustainability

Three-D printing is the new industrial revolution. Ty Syt, a member of the Boulder hackerspace Solid State Depot, says interest in 3-D printing will only continue to grow as more people learn to use the technology.

Seasonal swings in temperatures and CO2 levels are evidence of agricultural advances and population explosion tilting nature’s balance

Researchers believe they now know why global warming has begun to announce itself both in annual rises in temperature and in the seasonal records of carbon dioxide in the northern hemisphere — the same seasonal variation in atmospheric chemistry...

New book argues climate change messengers are seeing unparalleled attacks

According to a new book by veteran environmentalist George Marshall, thousands of abusive emails — including demands that he commit suicide or be “shot, quartered and fed to the pigs, along with your family” — were received by climate scientist...

Boulder recycling dragged down by commercial sector

Two years ago, Boulder was diverting 41 percent of the waste stream to be recycled or composted. In 2013, that number had decreased to 32 percent, according to the city of Boulder’s website, even though regulations make recycling as easy and inexpensive as possible for residents.

Mountain communities question forest service clearcutting

But some locals, upset about the changes to the forest they know and love, are questioning if logging can really protect their homes and whether wildfire is as much of a threat to the forest as they’re being told.

Without drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the report says, global average temperatures will probably increase by another 2 degrees Celsius by mid-century over their 1986-2005 levels. This implies temperatures nearly 4 degrees Celsius higher by 2100.